I feel like a failure. Somebody please talk sense into me

Has social media somehow skewed your outlook? You seem to have plenty left over money.

Adding you have

Parental support
Well paid job
No dependants
Youth
Good health
A partner

You have the opportunity to do the next big thing on your list

You have everything on your side

The only thing stopping you, is you !

I didn't have the luxury of living with my parents to save up.

You are young, you can get a second or third job to save up quickly.

During covid, savings were below 1%
Savings are now at 5%+

Stop moaning & put an action plan into place

You need to put some time & effort into your plan

Yes you can. You can use your LISA for a house deposit 12 months from the day you first paid into it.

Median average, which is more accurate, is lower.

You can't take your savings out of a lifetime isa after two years

No you're not a failure. Make the most of the time living with your parents and save as much as you can starting now. Once it starts building up you'll feel much better and like there is a way out. It won't feel like it now but you're lucky to have parents who will let you move back it's a really good chance to save. Between you and your bf could you save 2k a month if you really focused on it? You could be looking at buying within a year if you can do that. That's no time at all in the grand scheme of things! Stay positive.

You can only open one LISA each, but they also can each open just a regular savings account for the rest, and save in both at the same time.

You're not a failure at all. You could benefit from adjusting your mindset.

You're still so young. You've got another 10+ yrs to start having kids.
You have a home, with minimal rent that enables you to save at least £750 odd a month.
You have a job with a fair salary. Assume you don't have any debt?

You're doing just fine. Aged 29 I was married, had a baby, good job, bought a house a year later. Two years later I left my husband and went back into renting. I've had so many ups and downs since then. I'm now 39. 14 months ago I had just bought a house with the man I thought I would spend the rest of my life with. A month later I got breast cancer. Now, I've taken the brave decision to end this relationship and I'm cohabiting with my ex until he moves out! My point is, at various points over the past 10 years I really felt like I'd 'made it'. I had everything anyone could want. Then life takes so many twists and turns and you're not in the same position and the things you want from life change dramatically. I'm 40 next year, single, possibly going to have to sell my house and rent again. But I have my beautiful daughter, my lovely cats, and friends and family who care for me. And I'm alive. You don't know what's going to happen in the next few years. And you've certainly not failed because you're not exactly where you want to be right now.

Thank you for clarifying.

She is saying two different things:

a) save £750 per month each, ie £1500 per month. Over 24 months that is £36k

b) separate from that, open a LISA each. That will give her and her boyfriend £1000 each per year, so £4K total over 2 years.

Total saved £36k + £4K = £40k

But they can only contribute £4000 a year each.

I didn’t say anything about interest.

£1,500 per month for two years = £36,000

A LISA open for 2 years with the maximum £4,000 contributed each year will give a government bonus of £2,000 (£1,000 per year). If OP and her boyfriend each open one and max it out that will be £4,000 government bonus between them, over the 2 years.

Added to the £36,000 saved that would be £40,000.

Interested to hear what I’m not understanding?

It’s not average. Average is £35k.

I think you are confused about what a LISA is and how much interest would he earned in two years

Lots of people earn that kind of salary in "good careers".

Obviously that's location dependent.

So how much can you save a month?

How much do you need for a deposit?

Make a concrete plan, you can make it happen! You can’t turn back time just move forward.

It's all about priorities and choices OP.

You spend £700 a month (in your most recent post), you earn £1,900. So, where is £1,200 going? Even living a decent life with £100 a week spending money, you should easily save £800 a month. In a year, that's nearly £10K you could save.

I'm two years older than you and bought my house at 27. But, I chose to prioritise a house above all else. Every penny I earnt from the day I turned 16 (other than rent to my parents) went towards a house deposit - for example, when I earnt £1,600 a month, I saved £1000 a month (£400 towards my parents, £200 for all my other bills).

You can easily turn this around, you just need to make cuts and prioritise. You're not a failure, you've just made short-term choices when you have long-term goals - it's easily rectified, if you want to rectify it. 🙂

That’s £700, where’s the other £1200 going? Let’s say you need £200 for food (do you buy your own food?) and £100 spending money you should be able to save £900 a month?

It's not a low wage. It's about average for the UK, which is therefore quite a good wage considering OP's youth and the fact she took some time out travelling!

Different people have different priorities, that’s fine. You prioritised travelling. Fine, but don’t now complain that you can’t afford to buy a house. I prioritised home ownership, I didn’t go travelling and didn’t have a gym membership, and bought when I was 27. I didn’t complain that I didn’t get to go travelling or to the gym, you can’t have everything.

You're not a failure. The thing is with savings, is that you can't spend them and have them. It's fine to choose to blow all your money on travelling, and gym memberships and beefy phone contracts , but then you haven't got it in the bank. You know this.

It should be totally doable while living at home to cut your outgoings drastically if your goal is to save up, but you have to actually do it, not just 'live at home to save money' and wonder why it's not happening.

Is there anything particular happening when you turn 29 that means that you have to have a baby by then?

You went travelling. I wanted to go travelling but didn’t because I prioritised buying a house (I was 26). Granted this was four years ago when interest rates were better but still, I don’t think you can have everything! It’s all down to priorities and what you choose to spend your money on. It sounds like you earn plenty enough to save every month tbh

Obviously not 🙄. I was posting in reply to the woman who said she’s 50 and most of her similarly aged friends in London live with their parents. I am 40.